Erik is a baseball fan who has been attending baseball games and snagging baseballs regularly since 2008.

9-13-08 PNC Park, Cardinals @ Pirates

Due to the rainy weekend we’ve had, there was no batting practice today. Last night’s game was delayed over an hour, canceling batting practice, and unfortunately, the same thing happened today.

I still got to the park at 4:30 in hopes that they would have BP, but had no such luck. I put on my Cardinals gear when the Cardinals pitchers came out to start warming up. There was hardly any competition.

When Randy Flores was done tossing, he threw me his warm up ball. I had positioned myself behind him and his catching partner. When he was done, I politely asked for the ball. He looked at me, then looked around, like he was looking for a kid, but couldn’t find another Cardinals “fan” – so he tossed the ball to me. It was ball #1 of the day. Moments later, Todd Wellemeyer and Joel Pinero set up in front of me andstarting throwing with an unidentified pitcher in the outfield. Wellemeyer and Piniero took alternate turns throwing. I once again positioned myself behind them, in order to catch an overthrow. It turns out there was an overthrow, but it hit off of my glove and back onto the field. I stayed put in my spot, and several throws later, a low ball bounced under Wellemeyer’s glove and into my mitt. The pitchers didn’t have any balls, so I asked them, “Do you want me to give it back?” Piniero responded, “Yeah, we’ll give it back to you when we’re done.” Five minutes later, Piniero kept his word and flipped me Ball #2.

That was it. They went into the clubhouse after they were done throwing and were’nt seen again until game time. I was happy with getting two balls on a non-game day.StatisticsGame: 2 ballsSeason: 114 ballsCareer: 152 balls

*I’ve decided to mimic legendary ball hawk Zack Hample and compare my ball totals to the all time hit list. As Hample states, ” it was more fun to chase a human than a lifeless milestone.” With that, 152 balls puts me tied with pitcher Joe Niekro on the all time career hit list (4,065th place all time).

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